The invention concerns communication networks, more specifically the allocation of units of connection time to communication terminals connected to communication networks, particularly the mobile (or cellular) type. “Communication terminal” means any fixed or mobile (or portable) communication equipment capable of exchanging data in the form of signals while consuming units of connection time (assigned to its communication identifier), either with another terminal or network equipment over their communication network(s) or with its own communication network. It may therefore concern, for example, fixed or mobile telephones or fixed or portable computers or personal digital assistants (or PDA) equipped with a communication module.
“A unit of connection time” here means the equivalent in communication (or connection) time of a set amount of money.
Many network operators, particularly the mobile (or cellular) type, offer their customers rate plans that allow them to establish communication whose cumulative duration (which corresponds to a quantity of units) is predefined, generally over a set period. For example, there are rate plans offering two or three hours of communication per month, or one hour of communication over an unlimited period of time.
When a customer has a rate plan and has used up almost all of the units before the period expires, several solutions are offered to him. For example, he can continue to consume units, which will be billed to him by the operator at the expiration of the period in the form of an added cost, based on the number of units consumed over and above the predefined quantity. He can borrow the communication terminal of another person who has not yet used up the units in his rate plan. He can also buy units from his operator, or ask another person to buy him units from his operator.
None of these solutions allows a user to have units of connection time at his disposal at all times, in a fast, safe way, remotely and without being billed.
The purpose of the invention is therefore to improve the situation, and particularly to allow a donor customer to transfer at least some of his unused units to the account of a beneficiary who is a customer of his operator or another operator.